Blackburn Cathedral
Sermon preached at Choral Evensong on Sunday 10th August 2008
Trinity 12
Last Monday the Christian calendar commemorated Jean-Baptiste Vianney – a priest
more famously known as the Curé d’Ars. Jean-Baptiste Vianney was born near Lyons
in 1786, the son of a farmer. He spent much of his childhood working as a shepherd
on his father’s farm. He had little formal education but at the age of 20 he began
studying for the priesthood. He found the work very difficult, but, despite his poor
academic performance, he was ordained in 1815 - mainly because of his devotion and
holiness. In 1818 he was appointed curé, or parish priest, of the remote village of Ars.
He spent the rest of his life in Ars – a ministry of 41 years. He became widely known
as a wise and discerning priest – and such was his reputation for holiness and spiritual
counsel that he spent much of each day ministering in the confessional. He was noted
for his understanding of human weakness, for his compassion and for his love of God
– for a sanctity, a holiness, which was almost tangible. He was canonised in 1925 and
became the patron saint of parish priests in 1929.
It is a happy coincidence that his death on 4th August 1859 means that the Curé d’Ars
is commemorated two days before the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ.
Transfiguration, the changing, the transforming, of human lives, and the changing, the
transforming, of the world, is at the heart of the Christian gospel. And in the Curé
d’Ars we have a transformed life whose holiness had a transforming influence on
others.
My summer reading has included a recent book by John Pritchard, the Bishop of
Oxford. The book is entitled The Life and Work of a Priest. Despite its title, one of the
book’s basic principles is that Christian ministry belongs to all of the baptised – and
the book has much to say to laity as well as clergy. I find it deeply encouraging that
such a wise and spiritual book has come from the pen of a busy diocesan bishop.
Bishop Pritchard has quite a lot to say about mission and evangelism. He notes that
we live in a culture which is profoundly wary of spin, manipulation and hidden
agendas. And he suggests that evangelism as a sales pitch, a campaign, is almost
doomed to failure with the majority of people.
For Bishop Pritchard, one of the key resources in mission and evangelism is the
quality of the Christian community. He says that people look, less for convincing
intellectual arguments, and more for the evidence of transformed lives. If a
community reflects the all-embracing love, the generosity, the kindness, the
questioning and the radical challenge of Jesus, people are likely to come and ask
what’s going on.
Our author quotes from a Franciscan friar who writes about a new monasticism – or
‘communities without walls’. The friar speaks of these communities as ‘homes of
generous hospitality, places of challenging reconciliation and centres of attention to
the living God’. Bishop Pritchard interprets this to mean hospitality, social
engagement and spiritual authenticity. He says that one of the key tasks of evangelism
in our day is the building of communities of grace where Christ is known and where
his life is shared in an unforced and generous way. One of the greatest gifts the
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Church has to offer a confused world is how to live together in love and peace and
hope. The Anglican Church as a whole is not finding that easy at the moment – but it
is something which will not come about if local communities do not themselves find
and live that life of love and peace and joy and hope.
Bishop Pritchard speaks of communities of ‘irresistable character whose most notable
characteristic is love’. Such communities cannot be built without living close to Christ
ourselves – a closeness through prayer, worship and service. Our primary calling, says
our author, is to hold fast to the magnetic figure of Jesus Christ and to build
communities of distinctive character around him. A single-minded fascination with
the mystery of God, such as the Curé d’Ars undoubtedly had, will create a community
which is vibrant and attractive. It is a high calling – but it is our duty and our joy. The
good news is that there is a God who does call us in Jesus Christ; a God who does use
our response to his calling to create those individuals and those communities which
speak of his life and love to the world. Amen.
Revd Steven Harvey
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